


Weight of One Moment

by arobynsung



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: F/M, Founders fic, Gen, One of My Favorites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-07
Updated: 2010-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-05 23:23:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arobynsung/pseuds/arobynsung
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There had to be a singular precise moment, a choice made that turned all they'd worked for on its ear and tore them apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weight of One Moment

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:** Assuming pensieves existed then, and other devices that I'm going to assume Rowena invented. Written for a [](http://community.livejournal.com/hh_clubs/profile)[**hh_clubs**](http://community.livejournal.com/hh_clubs/) activity at HiH but ended up being more than I initially set out for it to be.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Not broken, shattered, and torn apart.

They'd built the school, a magnificent thing, the very magic of their souls entwined with every brick laid.

The memory shimmered and died, foggy trails leading back to the pensieve.

A pale hand reached into the misty swirls drawing out another memory.

Godric, bright and bold, and without filter; Helga, sweet and persistent, without judgement; Salazar, sharp and reserved, without limit; and she, amongst them all, intelligence and charm, without an understanding of what darkness and choice can meld together to bring.

With aging eyes she concentrated and sought the memory before her for answers.

They were in a field, an impromptu picnic, debating (turned arguing) over what should be taught in the classes.

Should she have taken greater notice when Salazar brought forth the question of _who_ should be taught? Maybe if she had, she'd have chided Godric for laughing it off, she'd have noticed the edge in Sal's eyes quickly softened by the sound of Helga's laugh.

Maybe.

That memory too faded away.

She closed her eyes a moment and willed any thought of tears away as she brought forth the next memory.

The heat from the pyre flames still felt like they were trying engulf them all. It was just as suffocating and heart breaking, and so damned _final_.

Salazar was clutching a silver ribbon in his hands, crushing it in clenched palms, blood from broken skin seeping out and dulling it's shimmer. Godric was standing next to him, but looking back at it all now, this was as apart as she'd ever seen them. There may have as well been another person standing between them for all the solidarity they exuded.

But she hadn't noticed it.

She'd just lost her best friend, could she really be expected to see the cracks for what they were then?

Maybe.

The next memory, the last memory for she didn't collect more after this one.

The lines in her face had just started to show, her hair shot through with silver. She was pleading, a final time, _"once more for effort"_ Helga would have said.

There was a moment, when she thought that she'd gotten through. That maybe the memory, the idea of what they'd done together might still keep them together. But then he'd handed her Helga's stained ribbon and walked away.

She sighed and let the memory drift back into the fog.

Maybe the reality and dead essence of it was that there really was no way to catch it. Even if she managed to pinpoint each and every moment of their lives that she could have averted it, maybe destiny had other ideas.

But that wasn't a truth Rowena could accept, she was a scientist, a woman of facts and cold, hard, definite.

So she turned back to the pensieve, maybe there was one more decisive moment.

She clutched at the miniature hourglass pendant at her neck.

Maybe.


End file.
